Internet users often like to share interesting or informative web content they have discovered online with friends, family, co-workers, customers, or business associates. In most instances, Internet users may choose to share such web content by sending a uniform resource locator (URL), commonly referred to as a “link”, of the web page that contains the web content of interest to a recipient Internet user. However, because web content on the Internet may constantly change, links to web pages or web content may become invalid as such web pages or web content are moved, deleted, or updated.
Thus, recipient Internet users of such invalid links may experience frustration with their web browsing experience. In some instances, recipient of such invalid links may confuse the inability of such invalid links to retrieve the desired web content with hardware or software performance problems, and/or network connectivity outages. This confusion may cause the recipient Internet user to waste time by attempting to troubleshoot non-existent problems, repeating attempts to connect to the desired web content via the invalid link, and/or unsuccessfully searching for removed web content in a linked web page. In other instances where the invalid links are shared with business associates and customers, the invalid links may result in loss of productivity, damage to business reputation or relations, or loss of potential sales or profits.